My Dukan Attack Phase

I don't know if any of you chose to follow the Dukan Diet, but I can only recommend it. I will be posting over the next few days and possibly longer about my experience of the diet. This may help you decide whether this is something you want to do.

The diet plan is divided into stages and the first stage is called the Attack. It's intended as a short sharp shock to your system to get weightless going. It also gives you a boost because in those first few days you can lose quite a bit effortlessly. 

I lost 1.6kg in three days. That's three and a half pounds. 

The idea is that you go onto an exclusively lean protein diet. I say exclusively, during this phase you must also eat one and a half tablespoons of oat bran a day. The oat bran is crucial and a welcome break from the mainly meat and fish diet. 

On each of those days I made myself a "Dukan Galette", the recipe is in his book. It's a tasty savoury pancake based on oat bran. I had it with a slice of lean ham as my breakfast. I had some cold chicken breast or a tuna salad (no vegetables, other than a few bits of onion and herbs to season the tuna and some fat free fromage frais) as lunch, with a couple of hard-boiled eggs. Dinner was either a steak, or roast chicken, or lean beef burgers. My wife also made me a veal casserole.

The great thing is that there are no restrictions on the amount of food you can eat. You are just limited by the type of food as I have explained in previous posts. You eat until you are full. It is best to season your food and add as many herbs or other flavourings as you like to make it as interesting as possible to eat. You must enjoy your food. 

I drank a lot of water and weighed myself every day. I watched the weight fall off me.

The trick is that the protein only diet is very satisfying, while not providing enough calories for your daily needs. Your body will draw on its energy savings bank: your fat. The protein only diet triggers a process known as ketosis, which encourages your body to rely on its own fat stores for energy. 

So in brief, by limiting my nutrition in this way I was always satisfied by my meals, always felt full. I never felt hungry and did not crave the carbs I was denying myself. This got me off to the best start I could to losing the weight I had to lose.